State v. Johnson
State v. Johnson
Opinion of the Court
Defendant, through his court appointed counsel, has brought forth two assignments of error. In his first assignment of error he questions the failure of the trial judge to instruct the jury that they could return a verdict of guilty of involuntary manslaughter.
Only the State offered evidence, and it tended to show that on the night of 28 September 1969 defendant and deceased, while drink
It is our opinion that the issue of involuntary manslaughter does not arise on the evidence and that the court properly refused to submit it to the jury. Involuntary manslaughter is defined in 4 Strong, N.C. Index 2d, Homicide, § 6, as follows:
“involuntary manslaughter is the unlawful killing of a human being, unintentionally and without malice, proximately resulting, from the commission of an unlawful act not amounting to a felony, or resulting from some act done in an unlawful or culpably negligent manner, when fatal consequences were improbable under all the facts existent at the time, or resulting from the culpably negligent omission to perform a legal duty.”
At no point in the evidence is there any suggestion that the two shots fired by defendant into the deceased’s stomach were fired involuntarily or by reason of culpable negligence. Involuntary manslaughter was therefore not involved. State v. Bright, 237 N.C. 475, 75 S.E. 2d 407; State v. Rawley, 237 N.C. 233, 74 S.E. 2d 620.
Defendant’s second assignment of error is that the court erred in refusing to set aside the verdict ex mero motu because the weight of the evidence was contrary to the verdict of second degree murder. We view the evidence as ample to support the conviction.
No error.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.